It is generally desirable to restrict access to the interior of an appliance, such as a horizontal axis washer, during its operation. For example, if the door of a horizontal axis washer is opened while the washer is in operation, (i) the user is exposed to the rotating wash basket of the washer, and/or (ii) hot wash water may flood out of the washer. Accordingly, such an appliance requires a door interlock in order to reduce the risk that the appliance door will be opened during operation of the appliance.
Door interlocks currently used in connection with horizontal axis washers are subject to tampering and/or improper adjustment during end use operation, field servicing, and/or factory assembly. Also, these door interlocks require multiple solenoid actuators. Such door interlocks are bulky and not particularly suited for use in connection with narrow width cabinet machines. Moreover, door interlocks in use today rely primarily on thermoactuators in order to provide automatic door interlock release in the event of a power loss. Because of variations in ambient temperatures, thermoactuators do not permit uniformity of release times. Furthermore, current door interlocks waste power.
The present invention is directed to a door interlock which solves one or more of the above noted and other problems.